Benchmarking the Management and Leadership Disciplined Company
Those choosing to lead in the post industrial age, must make a 180° shift from a mindset of knowing, to an attitude of not knowing…replacing their trust in knowledge and experience, with processes for finding out and taking action faster than the competition. The following outlines the profile of a high performance culture—capable of profitabilityand secure…while at the same time building the owners transferable wealth.
(A) The Leadership discipline:
Definition:
The term to lead implies inspiring yourself and others to move towards a new place or different way of being. This is accomplished by people at all levels working at, and recognizing each other for, activities that align with the company’s cultural values, reason for being statement, and vision of the preferred future.
Benefits of disciplined leadership:
•Shapes and maintains a high performance culture.
•Generates and harnesses corporate energy.
•Brands the company inside and out.
•Eliminates conflict by aligning people to contribute in ways that maximizes the customer’s total experience.
•Fosters innovation, will to win, and a desire to belong.
•Provides an emotional anchor in a sea of change.
•Creates an ethics platform that helps weed out marginal performance.
(B) The Management discipline:
Definition:
Management is about establishing a value chain that helps in the planning and orchestrating of positions to collaborate effectively. The objective is to maximize profits through strategic thinking, increased production, reducing cost, and improving quality. This is accomplished by embracing a zero tolerance attitude towards substandard performance, cultural values violations, and process non-compliance. Managers are asked to subordinate the use of personal authority to a company-wide process autocracy. Process sets the direction—managers monitor performance, coach, conduct performance correction sessions with direct reports, and demand the involvement of everybody in continuous improvement.
Benefits of disciplined management:
•Promotes a company-wide perspective and discourages the development of personal and departmental silos.
•Integrates strategic planning and budgeting with day to day realities.
•Holds everybody accountable for the achievement of personal and corporate goals.
•Establishes performance standards, meaningful measures, and equitable consequence.
•Gets people at all levels involved in the removal of waste and rework.
•Empowers front line employees to be the customers’ primary advocate.
•Defines and makes everybody aware of the differentiated roles of executives, managers, supervisors, and workers.
•Demands timely and effective responses to performance issues.
(c) Understanding the partner chain:
Definition:
The Partner Chain helps people understand how the internal company and external associates are organized. It synchronizes expectations, reinforces a seamless value chain and helps meet the evolving needs of all stakeholders
Benefits of managing the partner chain:
•Makes adding customer value the top priority
•Integrates performance standards
•Top-grades talent and shops for maximum value
•Reinforces synergy between partners.
•Encourages continuous improvement.
•Maximizes the customer’s total experience.
(D) The Forward thinking strategic process:
Definition:
Forward thinking establishes procedures and clarifies standards for the collective performance of the CE and his/her senior team. It protects against the common failing of current issues trumping critically important initiatives. Departmental turf wars are eliminated by expanding the focus of executives to include the company’s bottom line. Discipline empowers the senior team to maximize current performance and prepare for future challenges and opportunities. Employees view an effective senior team as visionary, aware, courageous, inspiring, demanding, and an excellent judge of talent.
Benefits of a forward thinking process:
•Harmonizes strategic planning, goal setting, budgeting, and results analysis.
•Links strategic planning with day to day activities.
•Aids in the control of cash flow
•Demands more than departmental performance from senior executives.
•Expands management team accountabilities beyond departmental responsibility to include the bottom line.
•Provides accurate information and promotes timely/appropriate action.
•Encourages employee participation in waste recovery and continuous improvement.
(E) The getting and retaining customers strategic process:
Growth efforts usually fail when marketing and sales are enmeshed . Marketing disciplines are either nonexistent or do not directly link to the selling effort. When things go wrong, there is usually more finger pointing than corrective action. To succeed in a competitive world, there must be common focus, shared strategy, and excellent communications between marketing, sales, and service. Strategy is too often reactive and undisciplined. The sales function usually includes both “hunters” and “farmers.” Unfortunately, these activities are often grouped together. Strategy, measures, and their respective processes must be managed differently.
Benefits of having a Getting and Retaining Customer process:
•Co ordinates marketing and sales activities to enhance, performance, creativity, and cost control.
•Monitors market potential and focuses resources on high potential opportunity.
•Looks for effective ways of promoting company brands and offerings.
•Involves service people during planning and problem solving.
•Holds sales resources accountable
(F) The serving customers strategic process:
The customer’s perception of service is determined by the product, company systems, and people. Customers have no interest in who does what. If the billing is wrong, a delivery delayed, or if any commitment is missed, the customer will give you a failing grade. It’s the customer’s total experience that counts. Everybody must work together to deliver services that exceed customer expectations.
Benefits of having a Serving the Customer process:
•Creates and regularly updates a checklist for every job.
•Encourages employee participation in waste recovery and the elimination of rework.
•Harnesses the creativity of people.
•Eliminates duplication of effort
(G) The support strategic process:
“Behind the scene” employees are often isolated from what is happening in the field. Consequently, they have no way of preparing for operational changes. Support personnel should be represented at all process meetings because they are expected to provide what line forces require. Support includes services such as; accounting, legal, human resources, IT, and real estate.
The benefits of having a support process:
•Provides a voice during strategic planning for staff functions such as; human resources, accounting, IT, maintenance etc.
•Matches company resources to current and future needs.
•Aligns the continuous improvement efforts of staff functions.
•Measures the effectiveness of support groups